This invention relates to a passenger conveyor such as an escalator, an electric moving sidewalk, and so on, and, more particularly, to a balustrade supporting structure of a passenger conveyor.
Passenger conveyors such as escalators and moving sidewalks should satisfy the requirements such as lightness in weight and high efficiency of assembling in addition to their fundamental requirements such as transportation function, design and safety.
Light weight and high efficiency of the assembly of the passenger conveyor are preferable in that the strength burden on a building where the passenger conveyors are disposed can be reduced and in that obstacles which may be caused in a process of building the building can be reduced.
A conventional passenger conveyor, generally, comprises a plurality of steps and a pair of moving handrails which circulate endlessly between one of landing area and another, and a pair of upstanding balustrades disposed at opposite sides of the steps for guiding the moving handrails. The balustrades each include balustrade panels, inner and outer deck covers disposed at lower portions of the balustrade panels, skirt guards, and so on, and constitute a design portion of the passenger conveyor as a whole.
The balustrade panels, the inner and outer deck covers, and the skirt guards, etc. are supported by a main body frame which is mounted on the floors of a building and supports the whole of the passenger conveyor, using a lot of structural members. An example of this construction is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 114,281/1983, wherein a structural support member is secured to the main body frame to support the lower end portion of the balustrade panel in cooperation with a pressing plate and fastening bolts. The inner deck cover and skirt guard are mounted to the main body frame by other structural members. In this Laid-Open, although there is not shown a handrail guide frame disposed below the balustrade panel and to be secured to the main body frame, the handrail guide frame must be mounted to the main body frame by still another structural member because the structural support member supporting the balustrade panel is not illustrated so as to support the handrail guide frame.
In this construction, the structural support member supporting the balustrade panel is elongated in the direction of its length, and a lot of support members are used, so that the weight thereof is considerable. Use of a lot of structural support members prevents the assembly of the balustrade from raising assembly efficiency.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,133 also discloses a balustrade lower side portion, wherein elongated channel supports are used to receive and support the lower ends of balustrade panels. The channel supports are secured to the main body frame or truss by a plurality of clamp assemblies which are fastened to the main body frame in spaced relation. The clamp assembly bends the support channel to clamp the balustrade panels. The channel support is used in cooperation with a structural member with a similar groove receiving the balustrade panel. The channel support and the structural member are arranged end to end and joined by a splice member, using bolts. Since the splice member is insufficient by itself to provide the necessary support and lateral stability, the splice member is clamped by a newel clamp to provide necessary support. The newel clamp is constructed by various structural members.
As mentioned above, the balustrade lower portion structure disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,133 is provided with the elongated support channel and the various structural members for securing the balustrade panel to the main body frame. Therefore, it seems that the structure is sufficiently heavy and it takes sufficient time to assemble the structure.
Another example of the balustrade support structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,059. In this structure, a structural member, fastened to a supporting truss as a main body frame, is used for supporting a balustrade panel. The structural member has a vertical flange portion. Another structural member supports an elongated bar disposed around the bottom of the vertical flange portion along a running direction of steps. An upstanding bracket having a stud welded thereto is disposed so as to oppose the vertical flange portion of the structural member, thereby to provide a space for the balustrade panel lower portion. The balustrade panel is disposed on the elongated bar in the space and clamped by pressing the balustrade panel on the vertical flange portion of the structural member by screw bolts passing through the bracket and the elongated bar and screwed in the vertical flange portion, using an elongated strap. The structure disclosed in this U.S. patent also employs elongated members and various members for mounting the balustrade panel on the main body frame.